What are some of the more less known florist tools or something they'd be working with? I have a mystery story and would like to point to a connection with a by finding an object left at the scene that only the most observant useless knowledge hoarding investigator can identity it points towards a florist (as opposed to home care tools/gardener etc)? Or perhaps it could simply the type of wires or tapes? Might it help if I said broken or torn off stuff works fine as well.
A florist’s best friend are pruners and a pocket knife (like the floral knife Den mentions below!). Maybe a double set of pruners one for smaller stems and another that’s good for cutting larger branches and bigger stems like those of sunflowers but other than that there aren’t any sharp tools in use that could be found at a crime scene. Oddly enough this question makes me think of pin holders, albeit those are plastic and only meant to hold floral foam in place when put into its respective container. You may think there would be no reason for this to end up at the crime scene in your story so that your character can find it, however florists love to play kangaroo. I haven’t met a florist who didn’t have their pouches full of whatever they grabbed during their workday and forgot to put away. So there’s a very good chance your florist character grabbed one extra and just kept it in their pocket and then forgot about it. Same goes for pens, price tags, wires (the decorative kind), pins, extra knives and pruners, gloves… anything really might find their way into a florist’s pockets if given the chance. I also always carried tissues and wrist warmers. Very likely scissors, if they don’t rely on their knife half the time, maybe a pack of staplers.
Bottom line, if there’s a reason for your florist to work with it and it’s small enough, there’s a chance it’s in their pockets and there’s a chance it could have ended up at the crime scene for your detective to find.
That of course doesn’t narrow it down a lot, but the pin holders reminded me something I haven’t thought of in a long while. Ikebana. It’s a specific type of Japanese arrangement with exact rules and specifications, but also it’s very own type of… I tend to think of it as a needle type pin holder, but well it’s not. It’s an arrangement holder to be a little more exact and they’re call kenzan. A usually round metal plate with a whole bunch of needles attached, that make it look like a sort of needle pillow. It allows for very precise floral arrangement and is to my knowledge not used outside of Ikebana because of how the flowers are arranged. With other arrangements even with the use of floral foam they are centred around pivotal point and arranged diagonally in a circle fashion, while Ikebana required an upright arrangement of the stems, which is actually quite hard for florists to get accustomed to if they never practiced it.
This is not to say that the Ikebana needle pins cannot be used outside their intended purpose of the arrangement is so specific that it should require it. It simply isn’t something that florist who aren’t trained in the art would go for in their day-to-day work. And then of course it’s a matter of availability, I have never seen any place with more than one or two of kenzans, and it would be a piece that florists only rent and require their customers to bring back if they do end up using it.
Other than that, and this may sound odd but all florists I’ve ever known used the same two type of knives. For one those run-of-the-mill fruit knives that come in every colour (usually with a hole at the end of handle) but specifically those with a red handle and then the most basic pocket knife with the little swiss emblem – also by a majority in red. Of course they come in different colours as well. Mine’s light blue, but I’ve also seen them in pink, purple and yellow. And both versions are commonly referred to as florist knives. It’s also what google thinks florist knives are.
Florists tend to be attached to their personal pocket knives, and may have a habit of carrying them everywhere as to not lose them so easily. Albeit the fruit knives are a lot easier to replace then the pocket knives and florists also don’t tend to be as possessive about those. However the pocket knives also tend to have initials to tell them apart if the colour doesn’t do the trick. With that being said, most florists would recognize these knives on sight, initials or not.
Actually if your florist character lost their pocket knife at the crime scene and they think they can pull it off I could very well imagine them coming back for it. It’s a personal item potentially with sentimental value to some degree. There are technically also thorn strippers, but they’re unpopular with florists and a last resort if at all. So there is a negative chance that your florist character would lose those of all things at a crime scene. If this character loses a thorn stripper regardless it easily marks them as an amateur, hobbyist or someone very new to the industry. A well-trained florist who’s been doing their job for a while would rather use a knife or snap thorns off with their fingers. (Depends on personal preference, what someone has been taught, and quite often on how thorny the flower stems are).
– Mod Jana
I will say that, at least in college, we tended to use the Swiss Army budding knife as frequently as the floral knife.
(Budding knife: a folding pocket knife with red handle marked with the Swiss Army emblem near the folding end, slightly open showing a squarish blade with a beveled edge near the tip on the opposite side of the cutting edge.)
(Floral knife: a folding pocket knife with red handle marked with the Swiss Army emblem near the folding end, slightly open showing a single blade with the end rounded to taper toward the cutting edge.)
The odd bit on the opposite side of the cutting edge of the budding knife is used in other horticulture matters such as budding and grafting (hence the name) where you want to be able to peel back the outer layers of a plant stem without completely destroying it. We needed these for our propagation classes anyway, so it made sense to use them for the floral design classes as well. That thin, non-cutting bit is just really useful sometimes.
My professor also had a habit of keeping self addressed, stamped padded envelopes in his carry on luggage when he traveled because he would always forget to put his floral knife in the checked luggage and he didn’t want to lose his knives, so he’d drop it in the envelope and mail it back to himself. We get very attached to our favorite floral knives.
~*Mod Den*~
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This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.